MassAction

Saturday

Oct 27, 2007 at 12:01 AM

A look at news from around the statr.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is scheduled to vote Monday on a proposed toll increase. Turnpike officials say there will be no alterations to the 25-cent and 50-cent toll hikes as a result of five public hearings, but the board will discuss board member Mary Connaughton's proposal that requests more revenue from turnpike tunnels and less from the turnpike extension.

The state's first new rail line in a decade starts service this week, kicked off Tuesday with an inaugural train carrying Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen and MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabuaskas from the Weymouth Landing/East Braintree station to Greenbush station in Scituate.

The administration puts on a full-court press this week in one of the areas the governor has identified as a priority: his life sciences plan. Patrick will pitch the 10-year, $1 billion initiative to lawmakers on Tuesday.

Legislation establishing a corps of volunteers, one of Gov. Deval Patrick's first-filed initiatives since taking office, is awaiting final approval from the House and Senate. The bill, backed by a $3 million line item, would create the Commonwealth Corps, which Patrick hopes will recruit 1,000 members within five years.

As efforts gear up to widen divestment directives, Gov. Patrick has on his desk legislation that will force the $50 billion state pension fund to divest an estimated $103 million from eight companies doing business with the Sudanese government, which some view as complicit in a genocide that has drawn international outrage.